Irit Dinur () is an Israeli computer scientist. She is professor of computer science at the
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...
. In 2024 she was appointed a permanent faculty member in the School of Mathematics of the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
. Her research is in foundations of
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
and in
combinatorics
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...
, and especially in
probabilistically checkable proofs and
hardness of approximation In computer science, hardness of approximation is a field that studies the algorithmic complexity of finding near-optimal solutions to optimization problems.
Scope
Hardness of approximation complements the study of approximation algorithms by pro ...
.
Biography
Irit Dinur earned her doctorate in 2002 from the school of computer science in
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...
, advised by
Shmuel Safra; her thesis was entitled ''On the Hardness of Approximating the Minimum Vertex Cover and The Closest Vector in a Lattice''. She joined the Weizmann Institute after visiting the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
in
Princeton, New Jersey
The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
,
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...
, and the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
.
Dinur published in 2006 a new proof of the
PCP theorem
In computational complexity theory, the PCP theorem (also known as the PCP characterization theorem) states that every decision problem in the NP complexity class has probabilistically checkable proofs ( proofs that can be checked by a randomiz ...
that was significantly simpler than previous proofs of the same result.
Awards and recognition
In 2007, she was given the
Michael Bruno Michael Bruno may refer to:
* Michael Bruno (economist) (1932–1996), Israeli economist
* Michael Bruno (entrepreneur), American entrepreneur
* Kalani Das (born Michael Bruno), American percussionist, author and educator
* Michael-Bruno ...
Memorial Award in Computer Science by
Yad Hanadiv. She was a plenary speaker at the 2010
International Congress of Mathematicians
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...
. In 2012, she won the
Anna and Lajos Erdős Prize in Mathematics, given by the
Israel Mathematical Union
The Israel Mathematical Union (IMU) () is an association of professional mathematicians in Israel. It is a member of the European Mathematical Society and the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and has reciprocity memb ...
. She was the William Bentinck-Smith Fellow at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 2012–2013. In 2019, she won the
Gödel Prize
The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Inter ...
for her paper "The PCP theorem by gap amplification".
EATCS 2019 Gödel Prize
retrieved 2019-09-11.
References
External links
Personal HomePage
Turing Centennial Post 1: Irit Dinur
guest post on Luca Trevisan
Luca Trevisan (21 July 1971 – 19 June 2024) was an Italian professor of computer science at Bocconi University in Milan.
His research area was theoretical computer science, focusing on randomness, cryptography, probabilistically checkable p ...
's blog "in theory" concerning Dinur's experiences as a lesbian academic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dinur, Irit
Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
Living people
Tel Aviv University alumni
21st-century Israeli mathematicians
21st-century women mathematicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
Gödel Prize laureates
Erdős Prize recipients